Goats help with invasive species management in the Fells

Thursday

Stoneham Volunteers, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, are hosting a unique team of invasive removal specialists in the Fells: goats!

All this week, four goats will take up residence near the Botume House Visitor Center in Stoneham to help manage the park’s more aggressive invasive plant species.

Goats love to eat brush and invasive plants, including poison ivy, and offer an environmentally-friendly alternative to herbicides or mechanical interventions. On the menu for the goats at the Botume House will be glossy and common buckthorn, Oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, and porcelain-berry, all carefully selected by DCR’s Fells staff, state ecologists, and local botanists.

“Our staff and volunteers collectively log hundreds of hours in the Fells every year removing invasive plants,” said DCR park supervisor Gillian Lay. “We’ll see how the goats do by comparison, but they could be the ‘Greatest Volunteers Of All Time.”

Visitors should feel free to observe the goats at work, but are asked to leave their dogs at home.